College Injection

‘IMMIGRANTS should not worry. If the compact and bijou holding bay is full, there’s always room at Oxford University.

The dishwashing faculty

As the Times reports on its front page, a ”funding crisis” means that the venerable old institution is planning to cut hundreds of places for British undergraduates and increase those for students from overseas.

And it’s needs must, as the paper learns that underfunding created a £95m deficit in teaching and research at Oxford in 2003.

And this means that the university is being ”bailed out” by profits earned by Oxford University Press, which covered an annual £20m shortfall in running costs.

So, the Telegraph says, the solution is not to sell student places to the highest bidder or rename the place as Tesco Oxford, but to recruit more foreign students who pay the full cost of their degrees.

And when you realise that Oxford loses £9,100 a year for every British student enrolled, while overseas students must pay £19,000 a year, the move seems entirely sensible.

Although how all those au pairs and restaurant dish washer-uppers are ever going to save that much remains to be seen…’

Posted: 25th, January 2005 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink